


KEEP GAME CONSOLE RUNNING

by vapoplushie



Category: Petscop (Web Series)
Genre: Belle and paul are siblings, Paul Leskowitz is Carrie Mark, brief trauma recollection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:15:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29214753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vapoplushie/pseuds/vapoplushie
Summary: In 2000, Lina is reminded of the Playstation in her attic. In 2017, Belle gets a call from her brother.
Kudos: 7





	KEEP GAME CONSOLE RUNNING

**Author's Note:**

> Care uses they/them. My idea behind Belle’s dubious playtime. First fic! :-)

Care enjoyed watching the rain. 

They thought about each big, fat drop falling from a place far beyond their reach, somehow making its way down to the earth to pitter on their hands. It reminded them of a time they thought they’d drown. They were the rain, and they were the thirsty flowers. 

Belle was far more interested in the thunder. Huge webs of lightning streaked across the sky, and she held her breath at each flash. One, two, three…boom. The idea of sound waves being so sluggish was amusing to her. 

Care rarely thought about such complicated things. All they knew was water, and that water was wet, and it had a hollow weight to it when it kissed your skin in the form of droplets. At this point their stare was stone cold, lost in the shower.

Belle noticed this, and considered explaining to her sibling how light travels a million times faster than sound. Care was usually quiet, but Belle knew this was a special kind of silence. She decided to break it with a fact she read in a National Geographic magazine once.

Lina loomed behind her children with worried eyes. She loved them, of course, and seeing them enjoy such a spectacle warmed her heart. All she hoped was that they weren’t as haunted by the events of the past year as she was.

The silence came to a screeching halt as a crash of thunder rocked the house. All of the lights in the living room simultaneously fizzled out. Belle exclaimed and giggled with all the excitement of a perky 11-year-old. Care nearly jumped out of their skin from the rude awakening, but Belle’s enthusiasm comforted them. They recovered in her arms as the moment passed.

This event, however, shot an arrow of anxiety straight into Lina.

“Mom? Where are you going?”  
“Stay there, sweetie. I’ll be right back.”  
The tiniest voice groaned. “Don’t leave, it’s all dark now…”  
“I’ll go and get us some flashlights, just stay right here, okay?”  
The two looked up at her with polar opposite expressions. Care held onto Belle even tighter as Lina scurried off into the house.

Oh, god. Oh, no.

Lina rushed up the stairs and nearly tripped while rounding the corner. The pitiful light from an overcast sky made the house barely visible, but she managed to make her way to the attic door. A padlock crudely kept it shut - at least enough to deter curious 8-year-olds. Care was never good at opening doors.

Somehow, the black became blacker as the passageway opened. There in the darkness, a haunting glow stood firm. The buzz of the CRT TV rang out like a sweet melody. It was still there, alive, breathing. 

-

In 1999, Lina smuggled away her children, which involved leaving everything behind. She urged Belle up from her seat perched neatly in front of the Playstation, and told her it was time to go. But the Playstation never turned off that day.

Five years later, the seal was broken. A 15-year-old girl realized that within the attic of the Leskowitz home, all of her nightmares sat locked away, immortal.

_Belle, sweetie, I love you so much. I need you to make me a promise, okay? You need to keep this a secret. Never, ever tell anyone about this, not even Care. This is your Playstation, and yours alone. It needs to stay on NO MATTER WHAT. Okay?_

It stung. Somehow, she was supposed to stay quiet about all of this. It felt cruel to hold this information in her fearful mind and not say a word. Her sibling was standing on a millimeter of ice, and she was the only thing keeping them from plunging into the depths.

_Okay._

_Promise?_

One word was the final brick.

_I promise._

-

After 2004, my mom had it, purportedly.

That was all she could tell him, because it was all she knew. She wished she could give him more. She wished she could scream to him all the things that were going through their mother’s head when she decided to keep a Playstation running for 5 years, with all of the events fresh in its memory. She wished she could articulate the thoughts that she had those days she slinked into the attic to practice the gamepad language, or to search for an escape from the Quitter’s Room. For 12 years that game was her prison, and now Paul had it in his hands.

He couldn’t know anything. She had to keep his head above the surface.


End file.
